De-risking the seeding project

FUNDER: SA Drought Hub through the Ag Ex Alliance

PROJECT MANAGER: Brendan Kupke, SARDI

TRIAL LOCATION: Steen and Deanna Paech, Randell Road, Apamurra

TIMEFRAME: One year – 2024-25

TRIAL OVERVIEW: 

For Murray Plains Farmers, 2024 is the third year of a project originally focused on establishing canola in dry conditions. Year 1 (2022) of the trial was conducted at Palmer and Year 2 (2023) near Sedan. Funding for a third year was secured by being part of the Ag Ex Alliance De-risking the seeding project – adoption of key management practices for the success of dry early sown crops.

Canola has been extremely profitable in recent years and the challenge for the Murray Plains has been to have the confidence to sow canola dry, especially when forward contract pricing was in the order of $1000/t and more. The ability to establish canola dry to then yield even 1t/ha is extremely attractive for on-farm profitability.

However, in 2022 and 2023, the area sown to lentils has been increasing, to the point that it is now becoming the preferred break crop for many of the region’s producers. Its pricing potential is as high as canola – and even consistently higher, it requires fewer inputs during the season and so its cost of production is lower, and it is an incredibly tough plant in comparison to canola. As a result of these factors, Murray Plains Farmers approached Ag Ex Alliance to change our focus crop for 2024 from canola to lentils. This was agreed and so the 2024 trial focuses on time of sowing of lentils as well as herbicide safety and efficacy in dry conditions (details in next section).

The detail of the two trials is as follows:

Trial 1 – Lentil Time of Sowing

• Varieties – Highland, Lightning, Thunder
• Sowing times – Time of sowing 1 = 10 April, Time of sowing 2 = 2 May. Time of sowing 3 = 21 June
• Seeding rates – 40kg/ha (~120 plants/m2) and 60kg/ha (~150 plants/m2)
• Measurements – Record of flowering time, biomass cuts and plot grain yields.

 Trial 2 – Herbicide safety and efficacy in lentils in dry sowing conditions

• 25 herbicide x variety treatments, including both metribuzin and IMI dual tolerance lentils and sole IMI tolerant lentils
• Measurements – plant establishment counts, herbicide damage scoring, weed counts, plot grain yields